Volcano Princess has an enchanting storyline as you raise and nurture your daughter into the best she can be.
Volcano Princess was developed by EGG Hatcher, an indie game developer in China, while Gamera Games, a publishing company based in China and Japan, published the game. They have published games such as the Dyson Sphere Program and Depersonalization. Volcano Princess is an RPG parental simulator with turn-based combat.
With an intriguing genre like parenting simulator, you would think there are plenty of games to spotlight. This is because this genre can fit with most other gaming genres, such as horror or RPG. Unfortunately, there aren’t any that stand out. Parenting simulators highlight that every choice matters. This type of game gives you more ending options than an otome, regardless of whether you ignore the child’s concerns or help them deal with their struggles.
Volcano Princess encompasses this genre fully as you raise your daughter in Volcano Country. This is a beautiful medieval world filled with swords, magic and romance. While you raise your daughter, you learn about the rising conflict between humans and demons. The game starts with a cutscene that introduces who you are. You play the role of your daughter’s father.
You name your daughter and choose her blood type, although it doesn’t matter what blood type you pick, as it doesn’t affect gameplay. You choose the name you wish to be known by. When the cutscene ends, the game starts. Your daughter starts at the age of 5, and when you enter her room, you’ll be faced with your first choice. The choices aren’t that complicated to choose between, at least. Although each choice affects your daughter differently, it also affects your relationship with her. After a year, Volcano Princess will skip ahead, and your daughter will be 12 years old.
You set goals for yourself as well, whether you wish to be the father that protects his daughter or teaches her to be strong. You will be graded to see if you have reached your goal. The first goal is graded as your daughter reaches 12 years old. Your daughter has 3 main stats affected by 4 minor stats. The 3 main stats are Stamina, Intellect and Charisma. The minor stats are Strength, Knowledge, Emotion and Imagination.
The minor stats are graded by the lettering rank system, with E being the worst and S being the best. It is possible to raise your daughter’s stats through various studies. Even certain foods and actions she does outside of her studies affect this. In general, the main stats are ranked by numbers. If you put in a lot of effort, you can get them to 150 and over. These stats are significant as they affect how strong, smart, and charismatic your daughter is as she interacts with the other characters in Volcano Country.
It’s not all about just choosing a few courses and hoping your daughter will turn out all right. You have to pay attention to her mood as well as to a stat called ‘Darkness’. If her mood gets below 50 then her stats are halved. As for Darkness, well, if you want a darker ending, then get this as high as you can but some things won’t be open to you above 50 darkness. You can still get a good ending even if you have a dark job ending because you may have gotten a romance for your daughter.
When your daughter is 12, she signs up for St. Elma’s Knights Academy without you knowing. Not that you stopped her from attending. She meets her first love interest, Nina, the heiress to the Handal Family, one of the noble families in Volcano Country. When you pass through the entrance ceremony, you must choose between 3 different Lords. Each of these Lords values a certain skill.
The Handel family’s Lord, Lebsa, values stamina and is the one to choose for a warrior’s path. Although you can get any of the endings through her, the warrior-based endings are easier to get. Princess Gwyneth, the heir to the throne, deals with the more charismatic knights, which emphasise social etiquette, the arts and politics more. Claude Bryan, the school principal who emphasises intellect above all else, is the last Lord. While young, Claude fought his way to the top with hard work and dedicated research, so this pathway rewarded researchers and scholars.
The only Lord who is a romantic interest is the Princess, but that does not mean you cannot improve your relationship with the other Lords. This holds true for almost all the characters you meet except for a few of them. Juggling this social networking with a list of things to do for your chosen Lord can be daunting. However, the background info on each character is more than worth the tedious feeling you get.
The combat system in Volcano Princess is pretty simple, but it makes sense as it isn’t something you focus on all the time. It is fun to have something that you can move through pretty quickly, eventually. The designs for the creatures seem repetitive, with not as much effort put into them, with the exception of the final bosses and the background. They seem rather dull in comparison.
Combat rewards are worth it since some are gift items, others are ingredients for cooking, or you can sell them if you’re short on gold. There are many interesting ways to earn gold in the game. You, as the father, earn money since you pick a job, and then for a while, you work and then get paid with an extra bonus gift for your daughter before you can pick a different job.
You are not the only one able to earn money in Volcano Princess. Your daughter will be able to work at a variety of places besides adventuring. She can work in the bathhouse or the theatre. However, these both require a certain amount of charisma and other stats to be higher before moving to a higher-paying job within them. She can eventually venture into the Dark Alley and hunt down criminals while drawing an organisation’s attention to herself. Or, if you really want to, you can gamble a bit, but you’ll risk losing more than you win if you don’t have powerful dice.
Volcano Princess has an incredibly captivating story that changes with every playthrough you make. With such a diverse storyline, it gets easy to lose yourself in back-to-back playthroughs. From learning new things about all the characters in the world in every playthrough to even learning about lore, there is always something new to find and do. This is even better if you’re just playing for the sake of seeing a certain romantic ending.
After completing any playthrough, you will get amber shards. You can use these to upgrade certain things, such as your stats, starting equipment, and starting relationships. With this, you can also move through the next playthrough easier and reach higher levels. You can also access the gallery after your first playthrough. The gallery shows all the endings you have reached in your previous playthroughs of Volcano Princess and any collectibles you have picked up.
Volcano Princess‘ sound effects were very well thought out. There are many instances where the sounds bring more emotion or even a whole different level to the atmosphere of the area you are playing in. This is also true in cutscenes, where you get more information about a character or when progressing through the story. The game is also voiced; this is highly noticeable in certain cutscenes where the voice acting was done exceptionally well.
The background music fits the theme of the game and follows a very nostalgic yet cheerful and fun note when walking around town or hanging around at home in the game. There are certain places where the music changes from this. When entering the Dark Alley, the music becomes darker and more mysterious. If you explore the forest, the music becomes more urgent and changes from area to area as you explore and get closer to the centre.
Volcano Princess‘s art style is well-drawn and whimsical, from the backgrounds to the characters. Everything is highly unique and brings attention to the medieval theme with a slight modern mix in clothing. It would have been nice if the other characters that go to school with your daughter had images of when they were kids while going to school, as your daughter has older appearances as the years go by. The amount of detail put into the background and characters is amazing, as it really brings the whole appearance together.
Overall, Volcano Princess is a really great game with a gorgeous aesthetic to it, even with some combat images being highly repetitive when compared to the visuals in the rest of the game. The game is easy to manage, and with so many different endings, it’s great for back-to-back playthroughs whether you aim to raise an amazing monster hunter, a thriving artist, or a highly skilled researcher. Developers Egg Hatcher have really hit this PC game out of the park.
